Honda Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. hosted a Media Gathering last week, themed ‘The Future Starts Now’, which celebrated their achievements in 2012 and to also give a sneak peek into its plans for 2013.
With that, Honda Malaysia has now set their sights on attaining a sales target of 64,000 units and a 10% market share for 2013, while looking forward to reaching 100,000 sales units by 2017. They are also looking to stamp themselves as the leader when it comes to the hybrid car segment, also looking to be the No.1 brand in quality and energy efficient vehicles.
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Honda Malaysia, Mr. Yoichiro Ueno, has indicated that “2013 is a year where we (Honda Malaysia) strengthened our operations for the transition towards an even more competitive market. We are aggressively building a stronger brand image and maximizing all our efforts to improve ourselves for future growth. Honda Malaysia is aligning our focus with Honda Motor’s global strategy and strengthening our sales volume. We will be introducing exciting new models every quarter, including 3 upcoming CKD models.”
Ueno further revealed that their upcoming new models will help them “drastically” increase sales and in order to help them achieve it, their Melaka factory’s production capacity will be increased to 100,000 units per annum upon the completion of its No. 2 line.
Additionally, in preparation for higher sales Honda Malaysia is also ramping up its 3S network in tandem, in expectation for an increased number of Honda vehicles on the road and is looking to increase the number of dealerships nation-wide to 90 within the next 3 years, from their current 61.
Dealership rationalisation too will be undertaken to increase convenience, accessibility and facilities to customers. Honda Malaysia is complementing these efforts with manpower development via level-up training of associates to provide for better services.
The company is also adopting a comprehensive After Sales strategy to further enhance its brand image and boost customer confidence. Improving customer service and increasing customer satisfaction, which are the key focus points followed by availability of more related services such as body and paint, and strengthening of business fundamentals via automation – strongly looking towards having the Honda brand synonymous with high quality products and excellent service.
Thus far, Honda Malaysia has managed to stay true to their promise for 2012 to become stronger, having sold a total of 34,947 vehicles along, more than 24,000 units were sold between July and December 2012, reaching a 7.7% market share at the end of it all.
Currently, there are almost 14,000 Honda hybrid vehicles on Malaysian roads, according to Honda Malaysia, while hey further boast of having the broadest line-up of hybrid models and being the first car manufacturer to assemble hybrid models here as well in November 2012 – the first that rolled out of their Melaka plant was the Jazz Hybrid CKD.
Despite having a tall order of things to achieve for 2013, Honda Malaysia remains confident, so much so that they’ve even anticipated to best their sales target and their two Car of The Year Awards and Best Hybrid Car Award received for their CR-Z, the Best Sub-compact Passenger Car Award received for the City and the No.1 in J.D Power’s Initial Quality Study (IQS) on its maintenance of commitment towards customer satisfaction for Honda City and Civic as well as the highest Quality model in overall scores received by the Civic.
In addition, their Honda City also came out tops in the ASEAN New Car Assessment Programme (ASEAN NCAP) ratings recently. The favourite family sedan was rated 5-star in Adult Occupant Protection and 81% in Child Occupant Protection, the highest rating amongst 8 vehicles tested.
Commenting on Honda’s 2013 plan, Mr. Ueno said, “Our direction for 2013 will contribute towards Honda Malaysia 2020 vision of having attained an unassailable leadership in environmental friendly technology. We envision implementing green technology locally as its acceptance would have picked up more pace by then. Honda Malaysia is also targeting at increased cost competitiveness to provide high brand value products at affordable prices.”
Honda Malaysia reiterated its commitment towards its business in Malaysia through the introduction of innovative products and innovating the way Honda operates. Mr. Ueno said, “With stronger commitment and innovations, we look forward to 2013 to be an important milestone. We will continue to strive to become a company that society wants to exist by providing excellent products and services for our customers.”
